It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World
The world is one seriously messed up place to call home at the moment.
Certainly, humanity has suffered its share of problems in the past, but never before has the world had so many problems of such varying scale and dimension in so many places – all at the same time. Things are going haywire in all sorts of ways, all over the place; the speed, depth, and complexity of this interconnected downward spiral seems to increase daily. From the worst backwaters to the most advanced industrial powerhouses, it seems each day brings a new disaster or problem to overcome, deal with, work around, or for many, to simply ignore. ‘Cause, you know, we’ve got soccer practice after school and DWTS comes on at 8 (7 central).
The only thing we know for sure about Complex Systems Theory is…
…the bigger they come, the harder they fall.
The jury is still out if it’s part of the solution or actually making things worse, but the fact is most of us are fully hooked into the 24/7 cable news cycle, the Internet and/or social media. I tend to lean more toward the latter in terms of net effect; however what is undeniable is this – being constantly plugged in makes us more aware of these problems, and thus more responsive and vulnerable to manipulation and interference. Especially when our awareness is only of the variety, “Yeah, I think I heard something about that.”
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
Albert Einstein
Forget the rich, smart, and powerful who use our ignorance, neglect and apathy against us to concentrate their wealth and power into an incestuous cesspool of stiff upper lips. From the middle class on down, even the most ignorant and ruthless urban gangstas and the po’ white trash are tuned in to their Obamaphones and double-wide roof-mounted satellite dishes, ingesting the national and international issues du jour via the relentless regurgitation of partisan sound bites and talking points. And man… they are pissed off.
Confirmation Bias is a comfortable bedfellow, but,
the loss of Normalcy Bias is a cruel taskmaster.
Of course, all this only means one thing. Every Tom, Dick, Keshon, and even TooSquishya has their own version of, “What we really need to be doing is….” The danger here is the masses largely haven’t a clue of what they’re talking about, yet, in their minds they have THE SOLUTION. Worse yet, they’re just chomping at the bit to sue anyone who doesn’t agree with them, or to get somebody fired or arrested, and generally destroy (or at the very least control) other people’s lives up to and including grabbing the AR or pimping a 9 and popping a cap in yo’ azz. At least that’s what they’d have us believe if you follow the nonsense that passes for intelligent conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
Meanwhile, back in reality, most of us are so wussified we hide out behind our keyboards in Mom’s basement or we choose to stay zonked out on the couch with our cable TV remote in one hand, our ball sack in the other, a cheap Lite beer sitting on a NASCAR coaster, and a crumpled paystub in our pocket that represents cash we don’t even handle or see anymore. That being said…
“Americans have two speeds, lazy and violent. Be glad we’re still on the couch.”
Unknown, as read on a ZeroHedge comment stream
The Eight Solutions
Sifting through the fracas as I do – even as I much as I talk myself – it’s become apparent to me all the so-called solutions, regardless of where they fall across the spectrum, can be pigeon-holed into one of eight neat little categories, easily digestible by the masses. As if there were eight, and only eight workable ideas – out of all the billions of ideas that have ever or could ever occur – that have the potential to save the human species and propel peacefully and successfully us into the future.
I mean, this stuff I’m talking about is important. And complicated. And hard. I mean, we have to figure this stuff out and save ourselves, right? If not, who gonna be around to save the whales, or be the next Bachelorette, or get jiggy with it, or bust a move, or stink up the drum circle with the putrid mix of Patchouli and body odor, or holler those famous last words of the American redneck, “Hey y’all, watch ‘is!”?
“On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”
Tyler Durden
Not surprisingly, considering our national attention span rivals that of a gnat, we can boil these eight ideas down to a slow simmer and find ourselves shaking our heads back and forth asking, “After all humans have been though, after thousands of years of history to cull from, is this the best we can come up with?”
· A Political solution: Our leaders will save us and give us what we need. Gee, let’s see. Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Egypt, etc. How’s that working out for ya? Thatcher was right. Eventually you do run out of other people’s money.
· An Economic solution: Mathematical reality could save us, albeit via a swift kick in the nuts. But, but, you say math sucks, it doesn’t allow us to lie, and it requires hard work! It’s just easier and faster to beg, borrow or steal our way to “prosperity”.
· A Technological solution: Innovation, increases in productivity and resource exploitation will save us. Or… shut up, work harder and do more with less. Otherwise, we’ll get a robot to do your job or outsource it to China. Reality check: 6.5 billion people exist for one reason and one reason only. Cheap oil. No other technology has done more, or even offers a close alternative in terms of the resultant increases in population, lifestyle and life spans. Screw up or run out of CHEAP oil and we’re done.
· A Social solution: Accepting that everyone is the same and sharing the wealth will save us; a la “Can’t we all just get along?” Are you serious? Really? If so, with a nod to Karl Denninger, I have a unicorn that craps out Skittles I’d like to sell you. All men ARE born equal, what comes after that is up to YOU. And oh yeah, trying to deny that ALL people want to be around other people that look, sound, smell, and think like they do is idiotic. Merkel put it best when she stunned the world by saying, “Multiculturalism is a failure“.
· A Lifestyle solution: Everyone should use less, become sustainable, and live simply so others may simply live. Except, I need my Apple gadgets produced by mass-suicidal Foxconn labor slaves to get the word out, and the carbon footprint of my Prius is greater than your 1994 F350, so just ignore those inconvenient truths. Anyone who talks this garbage that doesn’t live in a teepee, crap in a hole and walk everywhere they go is full of Kumbayah crap and has bongwater running through their veins.
· A War solution: Let’s just bomb them sumbitches before they kill us. Besides, it’s good for the economy! Get ‘er done! ‘Merica Rules! Wait, who’s the enemy this time? Us or them?
· A God solution: There’s nothing we can do, so let God sort it out. Yep, everybody wants to go to Heaven. But nobody wants to go today.
· No solution: We’re screwed. Would you please pass the ammo?
Now, as delicious as those may sound, it wouldn’t be America if we didn’t have a combo meal or two on the menu, but even there we find ourselves choking down nothing more than doctored-up rehashings of the same basic flavors. How about a…
· Political solution, paired with a hearty slice of Economic solution
· Lifestyle solution tossed with a light dressing of Social solution
· War solution chunked, covered, smothered and topped with a God solution
The best part is (or so we’re constantly reminded), regardless of your particular flavor, is it’s all right there just waiting for us to gobble it up. Fast, fresh, and cheap. Right there on the (U.S.) Dollar Menu.
Available for a limited time only.
Let me ask you this. Did you scoff at the Political solution? According to all sorts of national surveys of governmental approval ratings, the odds are you did. I don’t blame you if you did, I’m right there with you. But guess what? Even if you glossed over thePolitical solution while looking for something more acceptable to your palette, the oily texture of government is folded into every recipe on the menu. It’s kind of like that good old FDA-approved partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (PHO); it’s worked its way into just about everything you stuff down your pie hole. How did this happen? We voted for it with our wallets; turns out pumping vegetable oil full of hydrogen not only gloms up the oil – giving our taste buds the illusion of a richer, more flavorful taste and texture – it’s easier, faster, and cheaper to make than the real thing. Unfortunately, just like most things that appear to be faster, cheaper and easier, voting more government (or PHO) into our lives only makes us fatter, dumber, and lazier. Oh, and on top of all that, if you swallow too much of it – the oil that is – your heart will burst into various pieces and you’ll prematurely be cooling a slab down at the local morgue. In other words, even if we choose one of the solutions listed above in an attempt to forego the political solution, the government is so involved in our daily lives we damn near can’t execute any of the other solutions without their approval or influence.
Where does this leave us?
Are we just so totally screwed up we can’t come up with a solution that doesn’t fall into one of the tired old arguments I’ve listed above, or one that isn’t riddled with government ineptitude? I don’t know. And that scares the daylights out of me.
What I do know is this. Human beings have an almost infinite capacity both for compassion towards others, as well as intelligence. Couple this with our ability to choose how we live, and the sheer POTENTIAL of what we can achieve becomes overwhelming. We only have so many minutes, hours, and days in this life and we truly do choose what we make of each and every one of them. Everything we do is the result of a choice we make. We can choose to excel in our compassion, intelligence, and potential, even in the face of everyone around us taking the easy way out, or we can go with the flow, possibly to our own demise. Yet, against all reason, our individual and collective failings seem to be winning. Worse yet, we appear to have accepted this as our fate. We are ever accelerating on a linear path toward a paradigm based on every man for himself. And that too scares the daylights out of me.
It is thus, in the fully exposed light of our potential and failings that I leave you today with this challenge:
What ideas, what solutions, and what choices can you come up with that fall completely outside The Eight Solutions?
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